Tempers flare as Warriors lose to Suns 106-102

PHOENIX -- The Warriors' coaching staff is a well-tempered, patient bunch, but they're running short of patience with a team that was supposed to do such great things and suddenly is flirting with .500.

The Warriors lost for the third time in four games, this time 106-102 to a Phoenix Suns team they owned last year at US Airways Center, and dropped to 13-12 in the process after an 8-3 start.

The strain is starting to show. In a rare sight, assistant coach Pete Myers lashed out at the team long and loud during a third-quarter timeout with the Warriors trailing by nine. The tirade seemed to help raise the energy level, but not enough to pull out the game.

Coach Mark Jackson then took his turn after witnessing an all-too-familiar script for defeat -- the Warriors falling behind by double digits again, making a valiant rally that fell short, committing 20 turnovers, and suffering too many defensive breakdowns.

Jackson believes it's become a question of wanting it for his team and playing with a much greater sense of urgency.

"I'm finding that the guys in suits and ties want it more than the guys in uniform," he said tersely. "I don't see anybody in uniform with that same passion (as Myers). Enough is enough at some point. We're going to be fine, but we have to turn this thing around, it's as simple as that. We're watching the same movie every single night. It gets old."

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"Yeah, it's a horror movie," center Andrew Bogut said. "We haven't had consistent effort for the last 10 games. You can't play 24-minute games and win."

Without question, the surprising Suns played with more purpose and grit than Golden State, and even though the Warriors rallied to get with one point in the final five minutes, Phoenix came up with two huge shots -- 3-pointers by Eric Bledsoe and Channing Frye -- for a 102-95 lead. Then the Suns got a clutch defensive stop by P.J. Tucker on Stephen Curry when the Warriors made one last run in the final minute and had a chance to tie or take the lead again

The Suns, led by Bledsoe's 24, Goran Dragic's 21 and Frye's 20, shot just 44.3 percent overall but were electric from beyond the arc — 13 for 27, with Frye making 5 of 7 and Dragic 4 of 4. The Warriors weren't bad from 3-point range, either, hitting 11 of 22 attempts. Golden State was right there at the finish if not the start, when it trailed by as many as 13 in the second quarter.

"That's how good we are -- that we can not play with a sense of urgency for 48 minutes, turn it on when we want to, and still be in ballgames," Jackson said. "We're going to be awfully good when we get the fact that we have to do it all game long. But you come into a good team's gym, turn it over 20 times and pick and choose your spots, it ain't gonna cut it."

The frustrating thing for the Warriors is that the players seem to understand all this but can't get it translated onto the court.

"We know what we're capable of doing," Draymond Green said. "There aren't any idiots in this locker room, but why are we doing it? We know exactly what's going on, but we haven't fixed it yet, and until we fix it, there'll be many more days like this. If we fix it, we'll become the team we thought we would be and the team everybody else thought we would be. If not, hopefully we can be a .500 team."

Said Curry: "I think we have what it takes, I know we have what it takes, I know we're a good team. But you can't call yourself a good team with that record. The expectations are higher."

Curry had a fine game statistically -- 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three steals -- but also committed six of the 20 turnovers. He also thought the Myers third-quarter tirade was deserved.

"He was trying to get us fired up," Curry said. "We had not played well to that point, and I'm sure he got fed up with seeing the same movie over and over again. He was trying to find that spark that we needed."